Images don’t prompt me to create. Words do. I spend and inordinate amount of time reading, writing and researching, before I even approach my canvass. If I am interested in a particular concept, it’s nine times out of ten,
influenced from reading an essay or an article, rather then looking at a work of art. My artwork toggles between
stereotypes and representation and it magnifies the subtlety of racial constructs and how viewers have become comfortable with derogatory images. Whether through paintings, drawings or photographs, I seek to examine how black culture is codified and commodified.

I’ve been intrigued by the black female body in contemporary visual culture and I’m piqued by how her physical size
is suppose to dictate a certain set of ideals and behavior. Borrowing from Jonathan Swifts, “Gulliver’s Travels”,
I chronicled my journey through the Caribbean and West Africa in a series of drawings entitled, ‘The Capture’. These mix media pieces, textual mélanges of ink, oil, graphite and charcoal, depict voluptuous female figures amid a
strange world of decay and destruction.

‘The Capture’ is the initial phase to constructing a non-typical black female heroine persona. By delving into the
subconscious mind of a fictitious black heroine and the ephemeral quality of her thoughts and experiences, ‘The Capture’ is an attempt to structure a new mythology that explores black female sexuality and sensuality.